10 famous entrepreneurs who never graduated from university

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The school-university-work scheme is universal for most of us. What happens if the second link in this chain is omitted? Some, of course, will be deprived of the opportunity to build a brilliant career. And some will get their way, no matter what. In this article, we will tell the stories of 10 successful and wealthy people for whom the lack of higher education did not become a problem.

1. Evan Williams

Evan Williams studied at the University of Nebraska for a year and a half before dropping out to freelance in IT. He worked with Hewlett-Packard and Intel, and then, together with his partner Meg Howrigan, launched the blogging platform Blogger, which was bought by Google in 2003. Evan Williams' next project was a collaboration with Noah Glass on the Odeo podcast. It was there that Williams met Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey, the future co-founders of Twitter. In 2006, the four men, one of whom did not graduate from university, brainstormed a well-known microblogging platform.

2. Yang Kum

Jan Kum grew up in the vicinity of Kiev. When he was 16 years old, he immigrated to California with his mother. There, Qom entered the San Jose State University, where he began studying mathematics and computer science. However, soon his studies were abandoned, and the young man himself got a job as a network engineer at Yahoo. He worked in this company for nine whole years.

The idea of creating a service that allows you to exchange messages came from Kuma in 2009. The messenger quickly gained popularity, and now about 450 million people use it every month. In February of this year, WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook. The deal was reportedly worth $ 9 billion.

3. Sir Richard Branson

Richard Branson did not even graduate from high school, let alone university, but this did not stop him from achieving success. He was just a natural born entrepreneur. Branson founded his first business, Student magazine, when he was only 16 years old. At the age of 19, he started a company called Virgin, which was in the mailing list of records. Sales were going well, which allowed Branson to take the next step - launching Virgin Records. In 1980, Branson's successful projects also saw the addition of travel companies, including the Voyager Group and Virgin Atlantic. In 1999, Richard Branson received the title of sir for his services to business. Today, his Virgin Group corporation has more than 200 companies in 30 countries around the world.

4. Russell Simmons

Russell Simmons studied sociology at the City College of New York, but became interested in producing and dropped out. His first experience as a producer was participating in the organization of hip-hop parties in Harlem and Queens. In 1979, he became the manager of his rapper friend Curtis Blow. And five years later, fate brought him together with the famous producer Rick Rubin. Together they founded the record label Def Jam and signed artists such as LL Cool J, Beastie Boys and Public Enemy. In 1999, Simmons sold his Def Jam stake to Universal Music Group for $ 100 million.

5. Michael Dell

Michael Dell could have become a doctor if he hadn't dropped out of the University of Texas. However, as a sophomore, he did so and founded Dell Computers. It was he who in the early 1980s formed an interest in computers, when this area was still completely undeveloped. Dell started building and selling computers and focused entirely on the business. Dell Computers generated $ 6 million in sales in its first year. And in 1992, Dell was named the youngest CEO to make it to the Fortune-500. Dell Computers is one of the largest PC manufacturers today.

6. Stacy Ferreira

Stacey Ferreira was still in high school when, with her brother Scott Ferreira and friend Shiv Prakash, she launched her first startup, the online network password storage MySocialCloud.com. And it happened like this. In 2012, Ferreira saw a tweet from Richard Branson. He invited all his followers to a charity banquet. The fee was $ 2,000 per person. Stacy and her brother Scott borrowed money from their parents and took part in an event where they met Branson. Two months later, the startup project received a $ 1 million investment from him and his business partner Jerry Murdoch. Ferreira went on to study at New York University, but soon dropped out and moved to Los Angeles to focus on working on MySocialCloud.com.

7. Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren entered Baruch College in New York, but dropped out two years later and enlisted in the army. Upon his return, he took a job as a sales assistant at Brooks Brothers. However, the work there did not last long. Already in 1967, Lauren opened his own company for sewing ties under the Polo brand. His products were sold in Bloomingdales stores. Lauren later launched a menswear line, and two years after that, a womenswear line. Today his company also sells household goods and perfumes.

8. Sean Parker

Sean Parker rose to fame as one of the founders of the music-sharing network Napster and the president of Facebook. His ability for information technology showed up at school. He won the Virginia Computer Science Olympiad and worked on a search robot, which brought the young talent to the attention of the CIA. In just a year of work on various projects, Parker received $ 80,000. This fact was an excellent argument to convince parents to postpone entering college.

Subsequently, Parker, together with his friend Sean Fenning, founded the Napster music file sharing network, which he himself jokingly calls "Napster University." After all, it was this project that helped him gain the knowledge and skills that he used when further investing in other high-tech companies, including Facebook, Spotify, Airtime and WillCall. Parker's fortune is now estimated at more than $ 2.1 billion.

9. John McKay

John McKay studied philosophy and religion at the University of Texas at Austin, but left his studies and in 1978, together with his then friend Renee Lawson Hardy, opened the SaferWay health food store. Two years later, SaferWay merged with the Clarksville Natural Grocery of Craig Weller and Mark Skiles, and the new company was named Whole Foods Market. Over time, it turned from a local business into a highly profitable retail network of more than 340 stores. Currently, John McKay shares the leadership role with Walter Rob.

10. Dov Charney

Dov Charney began selling clothes while still a student at a school in Montreal: he sold T-shirts imported from the United States to Canadians. Some time later, Charney entered Futs University, but dropped out in 1990, borrowed $ 10,000 from his father, moved to South Carolina and founded American Apparel, a clothing company. The company's products were initially sold in bulk, and in 2003 Charney opened his first retail outlets in New York, Los Angeles and Montreal. In 2006, he sold American Apparel for $ 360 million, but remained in the CEO's position.

Reading the stories of these people, you involuntarily think: "Damn it, how did they do it?" After all, the university is not only the notorious lectures and cramming. This is an opportunity to learn how to independently find and assimilate information (not at all like at school). This is an expansion of horizons. It's self-discipline, after all. It turns out that these guys are so talented that they didn't need all this.